THE church where Sir Edward Elgar is buried should be able to throw off its scaffolding in time for next year's anniversary festival, thanks to a £100,000 grant for a new roof.

Parishioners have already spent four years fund-raising to help restore St Wulstan's, in Little Malvern, to its former glory.

But the English Heritage grant means the £250,000 roofing work is a step closer to being completed by next August, when fans will flock to pay their respects to Elgar on the 70th anniversary of his death.

The restoration co-ordinator, Lt Col James Sweetman, hoped there would be enough left to make the Grade II listed building even more "spectacular" for the English Symphony Orchestra event.

"We're particularly keen to pay for the cleaning and restoration of artwork in the baptistry and, if we could, the floor tiles," he said. "But the main thing is the roof as it would be a great shame to have the festival on and all the Elgar fans in town, only to have his burial place swathed in scaffolding."

The project has already received support from Downside Abbey, Worcestershire, Dudley Historic Churches and Welcome to Our Future, the Malvern-based charity funded by Severn Waste Environmental Fund.

But £100,000 still needs to be raised to finish the job and other major work on the Roman Catholic church, which was built in 1862.

Mary King, English Heritage regional director, said St Wulstan's was a spiritual and architectural heart of the community.

"Today the wear and tear of time and weather means that many churches now require urgent structural repairs to stop them being lost forever," she said.